Re: ppp and new users (was: Re: Tecnology and marketing)
On 28 Mar 1998 john@dhh.gt.org wrote:
> craig sanders writes:
> > overwriting config files automatically is evil.
>
> Who was suggesting doing so?
sorry, i came in on this discussion late and it looked like that was what
was being proposed - a script to automatically edit or overwrite config
files.
BTW, generating or changing config files isn't _inherently_ evil. the
evilness comes in when it is done in a manner which does not preserve the
user's custom edits and comments.
> > providing a mechanism which allows the user to specify a set of config
> > files which are swapped in and out of 'active' use is good. think of
> > them as user-definable config 'profiles'. profile 1 is used for ISP #1,
> > profile 2 is used for ISP #2, and so on.
>
> Yes, that's the obvious way to do it. You're still messing with the config
> files, though.
no, the user is messing with their own config files. there's a big
difference between simplifying the broad range of possible configs to a
narrow subset which can be done automagically, and creating a mechanism
which allows the user great flexibility in swapping config 'profiles'
depending on which isp they call.
the config profile mechanism doesn't do anything without the user
setting it up.
IMO, it's a matter of authority and responsibility. you can make it as
easy and user-friendly as you like to make the user's job easier, but
the final authority and responsibility for those changes MUST rest with
the user, not with the package developer and not with the script(s).
(failing to recognise this imperative, BTW, is why all GUI config
systems i've seen so far are fundamentally flawed. i haven't looked
closely at COAS yet...i hope they don't make the same mistakes that RH
and Sun's Netra and Webmin and others have made.)
craig
--
craig sanders
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